Piezoelectric coupling, phonons, and tunneling into a quantum Hall edge

Abstract

We show that the piezoelectric coupling to three-dimensional phonons in GaAs renormalizes the current-voltage exponent for tunneling of electrons into an incompressible quantum Hall edge. The leading correction is always negative, in agreement with experiments on the $ν= 1/3$ state and, depending on the precise value of the edge plasmon speed, can be as large as a few percent. We also discuss higher-order corrections, which determine the effect of the piezoelectric coupling in the extreme infrared limit.